US and Iraqi forces sealed off roads to an insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad yesterday and militants bombed two bridges in an apparent bid to hinder troop movement as pro-government forces tried to retake control of the region ahead of national elections.
On Tuesday, Iraq's Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said the tempo of attacks against insurgent strongholds would increase but acknowledged that the security challenge was a "source of worry."
"I don't want to deny the impact of the security situation nor minimize the size of the challenges we face," Allawi said during a speech in Baghdad.
More than 3,000 US and Iraqi forces on Tuesday launched a major operation to retake control of insurgent-held parts of Babil province -- an area notorious for kidnappings and ambushes and home to the fabled city of Babylon. The Babil operation followed last week's move to oust insurgent forces from Samarra.
The Marines and Iraqis punched their way across the Euphrates River, rounded up 160 suspects, seized a suspected training camp and took control of a major bridge, the US command said. The bridge, spanning the Euphrates, is believed to be a favored corridor linking insurgent areas around Baghdad, Fallujah and towns farther south.
Yesterday, US soldiers and Iraqi National Guardsmen were sealing off the roads leading to Qasir town in the area of Youssifiyah, preventing anybody from going in or out. A day earlier, insurgents detonated a car bomb in Youssifiyah, 20km south of the capital, as the Iraqi National Guard was conducting raids, killing one civilian and wounding 13 Iraqis.
Two explosions -- one a car bomb another a roadside bomb -- hit two bridges in the area yesterday, residents said, in an apparent attempt by insurgents to affect the movement of Iraqi and US forces.
In Fallujah, US-led forces unleashed a strike early yesterday on a suspected safe house in rebel-held Fallujah where leaders of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist network were believed to be meeting, the military said in a statement.
Three houses were flattened in the air strike, witnesses said. There were no casualties reported, said Dr. Dhiya al-Jumaili.
In Basra, a roadside bomb exploded as a British patrol was crossing a bridge, killing one Iraqi and injuring 10 others, police said.
Also See Story:
Irish passport may save UK hostage in Iraq
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique